Several years ago I met Lindsey Gates (K Teacher, Crittenden - Mt. Zion Elementary) who told me about her reading calendar. I thought it was a BRILLIANT way to organize skills and reinforce standards each day. Lindsey claims the results in her classroom have been amazing! I hope you'll all get some tips on integrating reading skills into your morning meeting over the next few days. I'll let Lindsey tell you more about it...
1- Beginning sounds
I show 4 pictures with 2 of the 4 starting with the same sound. On the first day we identify the sound at the beginning and decide which 2 start the same. On the second day we come up with other words that begin the same. On the third and fourth days the kiddos come up with words that begin like the other two pictures. On the fifth day I give them a word and they have to decide which picture it sounds like at the beginning.
2- Ending sounds
I have a list of five pictures and the beginning and middle sounds written next to them. Each day we do one picture. We decide what sound we hear at the end by catching it and then coming up with a few words that end like that as well.
3- Word families
I give the class the word family and they come up with some. If they have trouble I will give them options between a few words to decide which one belongs.
4- Phoneme substitution
I give them a starting word and they help me spell it. I pick a sound to change and they tell me the new word. This is basically a word ladder without the ladder.
5- Onset and rimes
I give them an onset and a rime and have them tell me my word. Then we take away the onset and they tell me what is left and then we do the same thing with the rime and then we put it all together again.
6- Syllables
Kiddos put their hand under their chin and count the number of times their chin hits their hand to count the syllables. We sort the pictures by the number of syllables they have.
7- Medial vowel sound
We sort the pictures by their medial vowel sound. I use baggies so that the kiddos can still see the pictures if they need help.
8- High frequency words/ sight words
I have all 100 of our sight words in the blue container and we go through about 10 or 15 everyday.
9- Fix-a-sentence
I write a sentence incorrectly and the students have to tell me how to fix it. I start with a lower case letter, leave out spaces, spell things incorrectly, use the wrong form of the word and leave off end punctuation.
10- Nursery rhymes
We start off with them repeating it after me, we pat out the rhythm, make up motions and by the end of the week they have it memorized and can act it out on their own. (We sometimes do a finger play with this too!)
11- Rhyming
I show them 6 pictures and they help me organize them into rhyming sets. During the week we come up with other words that could also go in each group and I give them words to decide if they belong or don't belong.
*I found all of the pictures online using Bing or Google. Everything can be done without pictures, but so many of my kids are visual learners and seeing the pictures helps them focus on the sound and not trying to remember what word I said.
Come back tomorrow and I'll share more ideas for a reading calendar.
Lucky me to get to present at the SPARKLE Conference for Creative World
Schools in Tampa last Saturday. You've never seen so many
sparkles, sequins, glitter, and FUN teachers!
